Authors Note: Welp, looks like copy-pasting has come to bite me back after seeing that chapters 7 and 8 have both been labeled 6 :'). Maybe because I gave you'll a cliffhanger?... someone hates me out there lol. Anyways, on with the story.
Chapter 9: Shadow wisps are not the only thing in the menu
"We are not feeding him that soup"
"It's not soup. It's a special concoction I have made. It'll help with whatever pain Percy might feel when he wakes up."
"Mother said it tasted horrible! Don't tell me you want give him something that disgusting as soon as he gets up?!"
"Well, it's not exactly made out of sugar, spice and everything nice. Something good for a person doesn't have to taste lovely, same goes for the opposite. Like cake.
"Cake is good though."
"Yeah but-"
"Can I have just one day without you two arguing, especially when your friend over here has passed out."
"I agree with you on that Ms. Leto." a groggy voice called out.
Three voices crying out "PERSEUS" were soon heard making the boy in question wince. His head was pounding and his vision was a bit blurry but he managed to recognize the red and yellow blobs hovering over him. "Hey guys, what did I miss?" Perseus asked.
"Well, you were passed out for like an hour, other than that nothing much happened." Apollo said. He frowned when he saw Perseus grimace. "Anything hurts?" he asked.
"Yeah, my head is killing me. And I honestly can't see anything properly." Perseus replied.
"Did he hit his head when he fainted?" Apollo asked Artemis. "Or were you too distracted crying to notice." he said grinning.
Perseus suddenly got up, wincing as he felt his headache growing. "I completely forgot; Artemis are you alright? You weren't hurt by the monster, right? He asked.
Artemis merely blinked her eyes, shaking her head with a fond look on her face. "Only you ash-for-brains, only you would worry about someone else's health other than yours". She then punched Apollo in the gut. "And don't listen to him. He came back with mother shaking worse than a leaf during dad's worst days. Right mother?"
Leto merely sighed. "You both were a mess, though I understand the circumstances. You just got attacked by a monster, a hellhound from the description you gave, while also witnessing your new friend fainting. I'll say that's some trauma. By the way, should I call your mother Perseus? She might help since she has her healing powers through the hearth."
Perseus's eyes widened on hearing the last sentence. "She doesn't know?! Well looks like this is our final goodbye guys, it was nice knowing you all."
Artemis gave him a light shove. "Don't be so over dramatic. Hestia will never let you not see us again...right?" She asked, trailing her question. Leto merely shrugged, as she went outside to Iris message Hestia about her son's condition.
"Well, we can prevent that if you drink this!" Apollo said, shoving a glass filled with the weird green mixture in front of Perseus's face. "One big sip and you'll be as healthy as an immortal newborn. And you will have the honor of being the first person to feel the effects."
Perseus just stared at Apollo. "No thanks, but for all I know, it might probably taste like those nectar looking drinks which the Adults sometimes have, and that just tastes nasty. So yeah, no thanks." he replied with a deadpanned voice.
"Oh come on, not even a tiny sip? Here, I'll help you drink it if you can't." Apollo said, trying to make Perseus drink it. In the end however, he managed to not only make him drink a trickle of the mixture but effectively spilt it on Perseus and Artemis. Which of course resulted in a knocked-out Apollo, courtesy of one blunt arrow from Artemis.
A few minutes later, Leto and a slightly worried Hestia came inside the house to find two messy and one fainted godlings, the former failing miserably in trying to get the stains out. "Can't I leave you children alone for one minute without anyone getting hurt or something." Leto groaned. Hestia merely patted her shoulder, a sympathetic look on her face. "Trust me when I say this, that you should definitely proof your house. And you'll need patience. Lots of it."
Hestia clapped her hands a couple of times, which led to a warm breeze of air to flow through the godlings, cleaning them up and reviving another. She then walked up to her son, giving him a hug and also checking for any injuries.
"You look fine, no injuries as well. Looks like Apollo's formula actually worked." she said, giving a grateful look to the now awake godling.
"It did?!" said Apollo and Artemis simultaneously, the former happy and the latter shocked.
"Yes, it did." Leaving the three to their own devices, Hestia pulled Leto aside, questions forming in her mind. "What I want to know is that how in the world did a Hellhound even managed to get on this island? I doubt it's because of their scents, those three together would have definitely thrown it off since the scent is like a full grown god."
"Apollo did say that it came from a shady area of the forest, maybe it shadow travelled? But you're right, this place would have definitely sent warning signals to a monster approaching a land under the control of two Olympian gods. Unless...they were sent here?" Leto said, a bit of fear laced in her voice.
"It is possible, they are of course three young godlings. Although not weaponless so that's a setback for any foes out there. But this is definitely something that Zeus should know, especially since it concerns his children.
Leto nodded. "You're right, and maybe I should make them not visit the forest for hunting, just to see if any monster comes by again. Though I could always drop them off to Olympus, hopefully they won't kill each other up there. Oh, and speaking of that Hellhound, children!" she called out, grabbing a clothed object as she waited for the trio to come to her. "I noticed these lying on the ground when I teleported over with Apollo to you and Perseus. Might be of some use to you three." she said, handing over the clothed object to Perseus.
He unwrapped it to find three miniaturized claws, each one hanging by a thread. "Woah, that looks awesome. Are those from the monster?" Apollo asked.
"Yes, and that monster is called a Hellhound dear." Leto replied.
"Apollo shouldn't even get one, all he did was call for help." Artemis said grinning, enjoying the look on her brother's face.
"Oh come on Artemis, don't be mean. He was with us when the monster attacked and like you said, went for help. He deserves a claw necklace." Perseus replied slinging an arm around Apollos's shoulder.
"HA! See, Percy's got my back. Cause he's awesome and boys before girls, am I right cous- AH!" Apollo yelled out as an arrow embedded itself on the ground next to his foot.
"Mention that dreaded word again, and I will not purposely miss my shot." Artemis said glaring at her brother.
Hestia quickly intervened before another sibling argument could break out. "Alright, how about we have lunch now? We can have the rabbit which Perseus caught as well."
"Rabbit?" a confused Artemis asked Perseus.
"Oh yeah...is it too late to mention that I won today's hunt?" Perseus asked sheepishly, resulting in everyone to laugh.
"Are you sure this is going to work?"
"Trust me, we made it foolproof. Plus your mom is going to be helping us so we'll be fine."
"Yeah, you're right. But we have to hurry because if we're late for training, Ares is going to make us do extra laps and he's already cranky as it is. Even more now that I think about it."
"Yeah...what's up with him? Did you break his favorite weapon again Perce?"
"No, Athena reckons it's because he can't get a lover or something like that. And don't call me Perce, Apollo. You calling me Percy is already tolerable as it is. Anyways, you have the super glue?"
"Yep. And do you have your knife?"
"Affirmative."
"I don't know what that means but I'll take it as a yes since I can sense that you are not lying. Don't ask me how, probably some truth domain or something."
"Add mind reading as well." Perseus said with a grin. "Now let's get to work."
A month had passed since the hellhound incident, bringing in another change for Perseus. One day, he woke up to find himself sleeping in the many guest rooms of Hades's palace, freaking out a ghostly cleaner in the process. Not only that but he had also grown in age as well, looking now like an eleven year old. This change however brought forth another problem, his shadow powers. While they were a bit difficult to control again due to a certain stunt during a hunting spree, they were now full blown out fluctuating in power, increasing in power actually which required Perseus to stay down in the Underworld so that Hades could keep an eye on him and intervene if necessary and also because the Underworld for some reason helped Perseus with controlling it more. While his powers had thankfully become much more stabilized, there were still some instances where Percy needed the unknown connection to the Underworld which prompted Hades to create a special communicator which would alert him if there ever was a spike in his powers, which would then prompt the communicator to immediately teleport Perseus to the underworld. During the past month, Perseus had grown vey close to Artemis and Apollo as well, mostly with Artemis due to Apollo wanting to spend more time on his music and poetry skills (the latter needing a lot of improvement according to the nymphs). But that didn't stop Perseus and Apollo from forming their own pranking club, giving Hera even more reasons to hate Apollo. Artemis had yet to join the club though.
"Awesome prank#7 from the Olympian Prankuo, but with room for more, is officially set." Apollo said giving Perseus a high five. "Now all we need to do is wait, and hopefully get a five-prank streak."
"Which would have been seven if you hadn't misjudged the measurements of the rope and Artemis's quick reflexes. I told you we should have gone to Athena for help." Perseus said.
Apollo bit back a snort. "You really think she would help after we mismatched all the pages in her books as our first prank?"
"Maybe...okay she definitely will not. Shoot we don't have time to run, wanna shadow travel?" Perseus asked.
"YES! I missed that, good thing you can properly do it now cause shadow travelling is really awesome." Apollo said grabbing Perseus's shoulder.
"Yep, now hold on tight." Perseus said as he jumped into a nearby shadow, feeling the now familiar cool wind rushing through him. Sensing a shadow casted directly on the stands of the public arena, Perseus brought the shadow close to him, slipping through it easily and immediately coming out back into the surface world.
"Oh dang it, I got frost on my hair again." Apollo complained as they walked down the steps to the center of the arena. Artemis was already there, filling in the straw dummies and grumbling about stupid war gods. Ares was waiting for them, his hands wrapped around a claymore pierced into the ground.
"Hey Percy, are you going to do that creepy thing this time." Apollo asked.
"Yup, ready to see it in all it's glory?"
"Mhm, cannot wait." Apollo said grinning.
Ares was glaring at them, his cold eyes having a calculating look. "Hmm, looks like you runts are actually early for a change. But that doesn't mean you'll have escaped doing fifty laps around this area. You, shiny boy." Ares gestured towards Apollo. "Give me twenty around the area, and another twenty upfront. Then join your sister on the bench. For today you are only going to be witnesses, for my first power usage fight against the kid in front of me." Ares said, removing the claymore from the ground, and giving a ruthless grin to Perseus.
Perseus sighed. "And once again I'm going to kick your butt huh. So...what's my weapon?"
"Your pick kid." Ares grunted.
"Very well, I want a... spear." Perseus said with a shit eating grin on his face.
Ares grinned back. "Don't get cocky kid. Here you go." he said, summoning a celestial bronze spear and tossing it to him. Ares then readied the claymore, getting into a battle stance. "On your guard kid."
Perseus levelled the spear, also taking a battle stance, his face filled with enough intimidation a ten year old can muster. "Let's dance, proponitÃs.
Ares eyes momentarily widened but then he shook his head fondly and charged with a battle cry. Swinging the claymore however was no match for Perseus's speed, especially when he was dodging the strikes with ease by doing backflips. But Perseus knew he couldn't keep up with it, so after jumping back a considerable distance, he charged using the spear as a vault to jump over Ares. But Ares was of course smarter and tipped the claymore over his backside, letting the weapon take the brunt of Perseus's blows. The clash of metal on metal left Perseus a bit unbalanced but then he noticed the shadow the weapon was casting in front of him. "Well looks like its power time." he thought immediately sinking through the shadow. It was then that Ares turned around but was immediately confused when he didn't see the kid anywhere. He closed his eyes and then sighed. Opening them once again, he looked to his right to see Perseus standing on his shadow with the spear which was now pierced on his side.
"You do realize I'm not finished right?" Ares said.
"Perseus snorted. "I would have made you drink Apollo's potion then if you never said that. But not because you're stupid but because you would have been weak right? No use fighting a god who can't last five minut-" Ares however didn't let him finish as he pulled back, levelling the claymore. "Being a smart mouth during a fight is never a good thing you know."
"I disagree, I think it's my best quality. YOU said it yourself." Perseus said, falling into another battle stance. "You want me to forget everything you taught me or what?"
"If it means beating you, then YES." Ares yelled out, jumping momentarily high with the claymore ready to strike. Perseus merely sighed as he prepared to go into a shadow again, but didn't think that Ares would use his godly speed and strength to body slam Perseus not just through the ground but through the shadow as well, leaving an empty crater behind.
"A-a-are you mad?!" Artemis cried out, fear evident in her eyes. "You could have seriously injured him!" she said yelling at Ares.
"Ehh, he's dealt with worse before. Besides, this is all fair missy. We agreed on powers and that's what we are doing." he replied chuckling but noticed that Perseus had yet to appear from wherever he had gone to. "Oh Perseus. Percy. Prissy. Pissy, heh, that's a good one. Where are you Pissy, did you already go back to mummy you momma's boy." Ares said laughing. But he immediately stopped when he saw a straw dummy land at his feet. Confused, he looked around to see straw dummies and weapon stands circling him. Preparing for something, Ares kept a good eye on the equipment surrounding him. Too bad he didn't look down, where shadows were obviously casted.
Shadowy wisps sprang out wrapping around Ares's legs, making him fall face first on the ground. More wisps came out, encircling his limbs and grabbing the claymore before Ares could reach out for it. "No, no, no." Ares cried out as he struggled to come out of his bonds. "There has to be something, light isn't working, it's not-" but no one could hear what he had to say as he was being lifted up.
"So...is this the rumored creepy thing Percy said he learnt?" Artemis asked Apollo worriedly, who was staring with awe at the struggling war god.
To answer her question, a shadowy whirlpool was formed, with Perseus at the center, a dark blue aura surrounding him. But instead of the enraged look he had when facing the Hellhound, there was a calm look on Perseus's face. He brought Ares down to his eye level and immediately noticed that the war god was losing the circulation for his limbs. He released the bonds, but not before encasing him in a shadowy cocoon, with the face visible.
"Um kid? Is that you in there or some split personality thingy?" Ares asked nervously.
Perseus just smiled. "Of course not, it's me, this is just something I've been waiting to show off for quite a while now." he replied, his eyes slowly glowing purple.
"Kid, I want to see black eyes, with those blue rings not this purple stuff. Come on kid, this new get up is really freaking me out." Ares cried out.
Perseus stumbled back, the purple glow fading from his eyes, along with the dark blue aura. "It's not bad per say right?...Just something Uncle Hades showed me. I hope it wasn't too much." Perseus said, guilt laced in his voice.
"Um, I-it was a bit much, maybe we could do theatrics another day huh? So...will you let me down? Ares asked.
"Oh yeah, of course, my bad. But you know, it'll be foolish of me to not return the favor, right?" Perseus replied innocently.
"Wh-what favor?!"
"This." grabbing his spear from the whirlpool, Perseus jumped a good six feet in the air brought the end of the spear on Ares's injured side, sending him plummeting down to the ground. But that's when things took a drastic turn.
As soon as Ares made contact with the earth, a shockwave was released from Perseus's body, breaking his spear and going through the entire arena. Within moments, fissures began erupting on the ground, large cracks also forming on the stands with large stone spikes also coming out. Ares, even with the fall managed to get up, quickly realized what was happening and quickly called out to Artemis and Apollo. "Grab those swords next to you! And whatever you do, don't let go."
The twins quickly obliged, each grabbing a sword. Ares then brought out his hands and in a flash the swords flew into his grasp, with the twins in tow. "Perseus, hold onto me NOW!" but immediately noticed that the kid had passed out. "Di immortals Perseus, REALLY! You two grab my arm, I'll grab him and whatever happens, none of you are going to let go!" He yelled out, receiving two scared nods.
Raising a shield around him, just in case, Ares quickly teleported out of the crumbling arena with one question on his mind. "How in all three Fates names did the kid cause a mini-Poseidon level earthquake?!"
Landing just outside, Ares sighed in relief as he checked over the kids, seeing that none of them had any injuries. Perseus then groaned aloud as he brought himself up with help from the twins.
"Of course you would only get up now kid, now I'm wondering if you faked that pass out." Ares said, trying to lighten the situation.
"What pass out? I didn't faint right." Perseus asked, immediately receiving a knock on the head from Artemis. "Faint?! You literally caused an earthquake, like how?!" Artemis cried out in shock.
"Oh." Perseus said. "But wait, an actual earthquake? How?"
"I don't know kid...but looks like we are going to find out. Zeus just called in an emergency meeting, and I'm pretty sure we all know what's it going to be about. Ares stated, as the top of Olympus flashed a brilliant grey, the color of an inherent emergency.
So...how was it? I don't know, I feel like this is a weak chapter, I hope it's actually great. But now I'm definitely going to start amping things up, starting with two things. Introduce Percy's other set of powers and the other Olympian Gods. And we already saw a snippet of one of Percy's powers, Earthquakes! Right?! But he isn't a son of Poseidon so how...well that's for me to tell you readers in a future chapter of course. Once again, thank you guys for reading the story, feel free to leave a review and I will see you'll on Wednesday, bye...\/